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About Our Work

North America

Asia Pacific

Europe

Middle East

Richmond

Located in one of America’s most historic cities, Vinson & Elkins’ Richmond office is home to a team of lawyers who focus on strategic transactions involving real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other specialty finance companies. Collaborating with lawyers from our Corporate, Banking & Finance, Real Estate, Tax and Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits practices, we provide coordinated counsel on all aspects of a REIT’s formation, operation, and investment strategy.

Washington

The lawyers in the Washington, DC, office of Vinson & Elkins provide legal services to domestic and international clients in numerous industries, particularly those with litigation and regulatory matters involving the federal government.

San Francisco

Vinson & Elkins’ San Francisco office focuses on bet-the-company litigation disputes and investigations in the areas of government investigations, antitrust, securities, complex commercial litigation, environmental, complex product liability, class actions, and intellectual property litigation. Our San Francisco office is one of the most dynamic and growing in the Bay Area, and our lawyers represent clients based in Northern California, particularly in the tech space.

New York

Vinson & Elkins' New York office provides high-quality legal services to an array of blue-chip clients, including leading private equity firms, investment banks, and other financial institutions, as well as public and privately held companies in such areas as energy, infrastructure, media and entertainment, and pharmaceuticals. Our lawyers in New York focus on capital markets and securities, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, commercial litigation, securities litigation, intellectual property, finance, tax, and restructurings. The office is also home to key members of our leading Shareholder Activism practice.

Houston

Houston is considered the energy capital of the world and is second only to New York in the number of Fortune 500 company headquarters. Born in the midst of the Texas oil boom a century ago, Vinson & Elkins is the largest law firm in Houston and one of the oldest. While known for its energy practice, V&E's Houston office is home to nearly 300 lawyers who handle some of the most high-profile transactions, investments, projects and disputes across the globe.

Dallas

Vinson & Elkins’ Dallas office has grown to become one of the largest law offices in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, with more than 120 lawyers providing legal services to a broad spectrum of national and international clients. The Dallas office is home to many of the firm’s key practice groups and offers a full range of client services in transactional, litigation, and regulatory matters.

Austin

Since opening in Austin in 1979, Vinson & Elkins' lawyers have remained well connected to the city’s many flourishing and diverse industries. Key practices in Austin include intellectual property and life sciences, venture capital, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, environmental, appellate, and regulatory.

Beijing

Vinson & Elkins' Beijing office has been open since 1997, and was one of the first international law firms resident in PRC. Using U.S., English, and Australian lawyers, we provide tailored services for Chinese companies investing abroad, as well as international clients on their business in China.

Moscow

Vinson & Elkins has advised clients on their investments and business dealings in the Russia/CIS region since the early 1970s. We established our Moscow office in 1991, and were one of the first international law firms to do so. Using Moscow as a base for our wide Russia CIS practice, we have represented numerous Russian, U.S., European, and Asian companies on a multitude of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, and other projects throughout the region.

London

Vinson & Elkins’ London office opened in 1971, making our office one of the oldest London offices of any U.S. law firm. Our London lawyers handle disputes (including international arbitration and High Court litigation), energy transactions and projects, finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and tax.

Riyadh

Vinson & Elkins has represented clients in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years; since 2011 we have worked in association with the Law Office of Looaye M. Al-Akkas which is staffed by native, Arabic speaking lawyers, all of whom are internationally qualified. This collaboration allows for effective, insightful service to clients both in and outside Saudi Arabia.

Dubai

The Dubai office opened in 2003 and is located in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). It is the coordinating office for the firm’s work in the region and is predominantly staffed by native, Arabic speaking lawyers, all of whom are internationally qualified, enabling us to provide proficient advice both to regional and international clients.

News

Insights

Vinson & Elkins is a great place to start or grow your career and we invite you to learn more about our firm, our practices, and our people. With our unique culture that extends across all of our offices, we enjoy working in an environment where we value diverse perspectives, have fun, and deliver outstanding client service.

Author:

While the Supreme Court has not yet resolved the question of whether Title VII prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, I have previously noted in this blog that there are good legal — not to mention moral, and business, reasons — for employers to take steps to protect gay and lesbian employees and develop a culture that is welcoming to LGBT employees.

Author:

While employers and their lawyers love to demonize California’s
employment laws, I have always thought that California’s requirement that all
supervisors and managers receive interactive training in harassment prevention
was a pretty good idea, although requiring two
hours of training is probably overkill.

Author:

If your company is one of the 1,000 federal contractor establishments (including prime contractors and subcontractors) that received a corporate scheduling announcement letter (a “CSAL”) from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (the “OFCCP”), you probably already know that, as a federal contractor, your company has many employment obligations beyond those applicable to employers in general. You should also be aware that the OFCCP, in sending these CSALs — which it is not required to do — is actually giving companies some extra time to make sure their practices are up to snuff. While not every company who has received CSALs will end up being audited, these letters provide companies a golden opportunity to review and, if necessary, correct their practices before the OFCCP comes knocking.

Author:

As I predicted last
week, a conflict among the circuits now exists on whether gays are
protected from workplace discrimination. In yesterday’s landmark opinion in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, the Seventh Circuit became the first
court of appeals to find homosexuality broadly defined is included in Title
VII’s protection against sex-based discrimination.

Author:

Full disclosure: I have a dog in this fight. As a gay man, I would be
happy if the Supreme Court decided that Title VII prohibits discrimination
based on sexual orientation.

Until now, federal appellate courts have always found that Title VII
does not protect employees against discrimination based on sexual orientation, including
the most recent decision last week by the Eleventh Circuit in Evans
v. Georgia Regional Hospital. However, those of us who heard the oral argument
before 11 judges of the Seventh Circuit last November 30, 2016 in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College
would not be surprised if a conflict soon emerged among the circuits. (There
was also a vigorous dissent in Evans).
The Loving v. Virginia arguments that
were made in gay marriage cases appear to be resonating with judges who are
considering whether sexual orientation may simply be a form of sex
discrimination. In other
words, if you discriminate against a gay person because he or she is attracted
to someone of the same sex, you are essentially discriminating against them
because they are failing to conform to a gender stereotype.

Author:

Having taught restless teenagers for many years before I became a lawyer, I have always believed that there are few things as ineffective as lecturing, since only a few gifted souls can pull it off effectively. While the adult learner may be more polite than a fidgety eleventh grader, his attention span is usually not much greater when forced to sit through a dreary PowerPoint with ten bullet points per slide. At the end of the day, a CLE presentation to lawyers, an in-house training for employees, or an eleventh grade trigonometry class are pretty much the same: the best teaching in each of these situations is usually interactive and demands that the learners fully participate in the experience.

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